Unexpected Love
by EsmeAmelia
Summary: AU. In a universe where Ben never turned to the dark side and became a doctor instead, he meets his future wife on a fateful day when his speeder breaks down. Ben Solo/OC. Set in the same 'verse as my fics "Heart of a Princess" and "The Meaning of Courage."
1. Chapter 1

AN: I don't own Star Wars; I just own my OCs. This fic takes place in my "Heart of a Princess" universe in which Ben didn't turn to the dark side and grew up to become a doctor. His wife Ara is only mentioned in passing in that fic, so I decided it was finally time to develop her. Here's a look at how Ben's happier ending started.

"Unexpected Love"

By EsmeAmelia

Chapter 1

Dr. Ben Solo didn't usually swear, but when his speeder engine conked out on the way to the hospital, that would be cause for an exception. Fortunately, the combination of his flying skills and Force-sensitivity meant he could skid to a stop without hurting himself or anyone else, but he was still stuck on the street with a busted speeder when he was supposed to be at work. Even though he commed the hospital to let them know he'd be late, he could still sense his coworkers' frustration when they got the call.

At least there was a mechanic shop nearby, but having to push his speeder there with the Force got more than a few stares from the crowd. He tried not to think about all those times when his father tried to teach him how to fix the Falcon and he hadn't paid much attention. It wasn't his fault that he didn't inherit Han's love of mechanics.

He eased the speeder into the shop using the Force, doing his best to ignore the stares and the amused thoughts coming from the passerby.

"Be right with you," a high female voice called from somewhere within the shop.

"All right," Ben called back, his stomach tightening a little. If his father found out about this, he'd never hear the end of it.

In only took a few minutes before the mechanic came sauntering up to the counter, her goggles resting on top of her head, tangled in her curly black hair. "Ara Greer, at your service," she said, bowing her head and giving him a toothy grin. "What's the trouble, Mr. Solo?"

Ben couldn't keep himself from flinching. Of course she'd recognize the son of the famous Leia Organa and Han Solo, but that didn't make it any less humiliating.

"Oh, I'm sorry," said the mechanic – Ara – leaning forward on the counter. "I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable. Your face is just so, you know, familiar."

"I know," mumbled Ben, feeling his cheeks heating up. "I've gotten that ever since I was a kid."

She was still smiling at him, but now it was a gentler smile than the fangirly grin she'd had before. "Must've been rough, having such famous parents and all."

"Rough" didn't even _begin_ to cover his childhood, but that didn't have so much to do with his famous parents as with his own powers. "You have no idea," he muttered.

The mechanic licked her lips, glancing down at the counter. "Well anyway, what's the problem?"

"Something with my speeder," said Ben. "That's all I know."

He expected her to make some joke about how the son of Han Solo didn't know what was wrong with his own speeder, but instead she just shrugged. "Well, let's take a look at it. I'll get it on the lift." With that, she went skipping up to Ben's speeder, her black curls bouncing on her shoulders. He thought she might ask for his help moving it, but instead she attached what looked like a homing beacon to the speeder and then pulled a small remote out of her pocket.

"This'll connect its energy to the speeder and nudge it to the lift," said Ara, pushing one of the buttons on the remote, which, to Ben's amazement, made the speeder hover over to the center of the garage and rest itself on the lift, which was currently set a few feet off the floor. "Don't get any ideas that it can drive the speeder for you, though," Ara added as she put the remote back in her pocket. "It's only good for nudging, that's it."

"That's . . . pretty neat," said Ben, unable to think of anything else to say.

"Thank you," said Ara, flashing him that grin again and making his stomach flip. Ben wondered if this happened to his mother when his father flashed _that _crooked grin at her.

"Of course," the mechanic continued, "I'm sure you could have done it with the Force, but those of us who don't have it need to make due with other means."

Ben found himself swallowing. "I . . . hope this won't take too much time."

"Oh, don't you worry," said Ara as she opened the speeder's hood. "You'll be able to go save lives in no time." She leaned over the machinery that Ben knew next to nothing about, humming a playful-sounding tune as she examined it. Several awkward-feeling minutes passed, during which Ben wondered if the woman was expecting him to start a conversation.

"Well, problem's not here," Ara finally said as she closed the hood. "It's probably in your engines." She leaned over the hood, cocking her head at Ben. "By the by, is it true that you can heal people with the Force?"

Ben desperately hoped he wasn't blushing. "It's . . . a bit more complicated than that. I can't, say, perform a surgery using _only_ the Force, but the Force can assist me through the process. The Force also helps me with diagnosing patients."

"Sounds interesting," she said, giving him that smile again. "Maybe sometime you can tell me more." _He's so cute._

With her stray thought slipping in to Ben's mind, he felt his cheeks rapidly heating up. He desperately hoped she didn't notice the redness as she pulled her goggles over her eyes and made her way to the speeder's engines – though he usually tried to keep his telepathy in check, he couldn't always block out people's thoughts. What a conversation that would be if she asked about it. _"Hey, why are you blushing?" "Oh, I just overheard you thinking that I'm cute." "Wait, you READ MY MIND? You creep!"_

He took several deep inhales as she examined the engines, letting the Force clam him. "So," he said in an awkward voice, "is this your shop?"

She snickered. "I wish. No, I just work here and I'm the only one on morning shift today. Most customers, you know, they stop in _after_ work." She started humming that tune again. _Nice guy. Maybe I should ask him out._

Upon sensing _that_ thought, Ben's mouth and throat went dry. Calm, calm, stay calm, let the Force flow through you, he kept repeating to himself. It was a passing thought, no more, she probably wouldn't follow through with it.

But what would he do if she did?

No, no, don't clutter your mind with uncertainties . . .

"Yup, yup," she said. "Your right engine's been overworn – it'll have to be replaced. You can come pick your speeder up this evening."

"This evening?" Ben exclaimed.

"Yeah," said Ara, removing her goggles and making her way back to him. "Do you need airbus fare to get to work? I could lend you some."

"No, no," said Ben. "Thanks for offering, though." He cleared his throat. "Anyway, how much will it cost?"

"I'll give you an estimate after the job's done, but it shouldn't be much. Basically, it's the cost of a new engine plus the simple process of installing it."

"Well . . . then I guess I'll see you tonight?"

"Yes," said Ara. "It was nice meeting you, Ben."

"It was nice meeting you too." Ben stood there for a few seconds, wondering if she was going to say anything else – particularly if she was going to actually do what she had been thinking of.

She was gulping, glancing at her boots. "So . . . would you happen to be doing anything after you picked your speeder up?"

"What do you mean?" _Calm. Stay calm. Trust the Force._ Ben could almost hear his uncle's voice repeating the instructions he'd given so many times.

She shifted her weight from foot to foot, her gloved hands sliding behind her back. "Well . . . I'd like to get to know you a little better, and I was thinking."

Ben had to concentrate on not revealing that he already knew what she had been thinking. "Yes?"

Ara let out a long exhale, making her lips purse out rather cutely. "I'm trying to ask you out, okay? Go ahead, say no. I'm sure you're all busy as a doctor and all and even if you weren't, you probably wouldn't want to go out with a mechanic you just met today."

"I'd love to." The words came out of his mouth almost without him deciding to say them, but once they were out, he felt as if a burden had been relieved. He'd never been asked out – in fact, he'd never been on a date, not even as a teenager. Of course, he'd spent most of his teenage years training with his uncle, but even at Luke's school there had been plenty of flirting among his peers, but at the time he'd been too nervous to ever participate in the flirting.

Ara, however, he felt himself drawn to her. She was nice – _genuinely_ nice, Ben could sense, not merely putting on a front to attract customers. Even if nothing came from this, he could imagine enjoying a dinner with her.

Meanwhile, she was giving a grin that rivaled Han's in wideness. "Great! So, you can come pick up your speeder tonight and we can go out to eat. I know this great restaurant – not too fancy, but not too casual."

Ben smiled back. "That sounds good."

AN: This fic will be a two-parter – Chapter 2 will be their date.


	2. Chapter 2

AN: Thanks for reviewing! This is the last chapter of this particular fic, but I'll definitely write more about Ben and Ara in the future. Also, special thanks to my friend RensKnight, who came up with the reason why Ben didn't become Kylo Ren in this universe.

"Unexpected Love"

By EsmeAmelia

Chapter 2

All throughout the workday, Ben thought for sure that he must be crazy. He never went on dates, especially not with people he just met, but there was something about that Ara Greer person that was . . . different. He found that he had to keep reminding himself to concentrate on his patients, though that was difficult with the way his stomach felt like it was in a vice.

Then to make things even more awkward, right after he clocked out for the day his comm beeped and there was "MOM AND DAD" labeled as the incoming call. Ben's thumb trembled a little as he pushed the button to answer the call.

"Hey son," said Han's hologram. "What's up? Hospital treatin' you well?"

"Yeah," said Ben.

"You got time for a chat, or are you busy?"

Ben gulped. "Well, as a matter of fact, I've got to get ready for . . . something."

Han cocked his head at his son. "You okay, Ben? You seem a little on edge."

"I'm fine," Ben insisted. "In fact, I have a date tonight."

"A DATE?" Suddenly Han was grinning so widely that his mouth looked stretched to its limits. "Leia, get over here, our son's got a date!"

"A DATE?" Leia exclaimed from somewhere nearby, making Ben's cheeks redden for what might have been the fifth time that day.

"Oh boy," he mumbled as Leia's hologram appeared next to Han's. "Mom, Dad, you don't need to make a big deal about it."

"What's she like?" Han asked. "Smart? Pretty? Sassy?"

"Han, we don't know it's a she," Leia interjected.

"Right, right." Han showed his palms. "Don't worry Ben, it's okay if it's a he. So what's she or he like?"

Ben took a deep breath. "Well, it's a she, her name's Ara Greer and she's a mechanic." He cleared his throat. "She seems nice – really nice, in fact – and we're going out mainly to get to know each other better."

Han was giving that Dad grin. "Always knew you had it in you, buddy. Remember, women like scoundrels."

"Women like _nice_ scoundrels," Leia clarified.

"I'll . . . keep that in mind," said Ben.

. . .

Ben didn't exactly have a lot of fancy clothes handy. Ara had said the restaurant wasn't too fancy and wasn't too casual, but what did that _mean_, exactly? Did she expect him to wear a suit and tie? Use hair gel? He ended up wearing a light blue sweater that he thought looked _sort _of fancy. No hair gel, but he made sure to put on his fruity-scented cologne and tuck his father's lucky dice in his pocket. Han had given Ben the dice when he graduated from medical school and while Ben didn't _always_ carry them with him, when he had an important procedure or a first date, he could use all the luck he could get.

The garage was busier than it had been this morning. Several mechanics were working on various vehicles, the grinding noises of their tools echoing off the walls and increasing the drumming of Ben's heart. He found himself squeezing the flower bouquet in his hand and wondering if she even liked flowers. It was customary to give flowers before a date, right? Or did that come later? Or what if she was allergic to them?

"And there you are! Your speeder's as good as new."

He gulped as Ara came sauntering up to him in much the same manner as she had this morning, except now she was wearing a dark green pantsuit with a low-cut shirt that displayed a bit of her cleavage and showed off her golden necklace. Without her goggles, her curly black hair seemed to have more life to it.

She gave him that grin again. "You look nice."

"So do you," Ben mumbled, holding up the flower bouquet. "I . . . brought you some flowers."

"Oh, how sweet!" Ara exclaimed. "They're beautiful!" She gave a light giggle as she took the flowers and sniffed them. "Come on, I'll put these in water, you can pay for the speeder work, then we can head out."

"Sounds fine," said Ben. "Since the speeder's fixed, I could drive us to wherever we're going."

. . .

"Wherever we're going" turned out to be a restaurant with a large, circular dining room where the tables surrounded a band that was playing soothing music. Ara got them a table near a window that had a view of the lighted buildings and speeders darting this way and that. Almost before they were comfortably seated, the waitress droid arrived and asked what kind of drinks they wanted.

"Blue milk," Ben said automatically, then he wondered if maybe Ara expected him to order something alcoholic.

"Rodian cola," said Ara.

"All right," said the waitress. "I'll be right back."

Once she was gone, Ben gulped. "Did you want to order wine or something?"

"Not particularly," Ara said with a shrug. "I don't really drink that much."

"Neither do I. I know, I know, you'd think the son of Han Solo would love alcohol too, but I don't know, my dad gave me sips of beer when I was little and I never really liked the taste. Sometimes my parents gave me sips of wine too, but I didn't really like that either."

Ara gave a small giggle. "Well we don't have to worry about getting drunk, then."

The waitress returned with their drinks, placing them on the table. "Are you ready to order your food?"

"Nerf steak with hot sauce," said Ben.

"Sounds good," said Ara. "I'll have that too."

Once the droid left, Ara propped her elbows on the table, a suddenly-serious look on her face. "Ben, just so we're clear, I don't believe in sex on the first date."

Ben felt himself tense up. "Well . . . that's fine, I mean, I wasn't exactly planning on anything like that."

Ara twisted her mouth, which seemed to show off her red lipstick. "Sorry, I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable, it's just that my last would-be-boyfriend tried to pressure me into it before the first date was even over."

"That's despicable."

"Oh, it's worse than you think," said Ara, glancing at the table. "He tried to grope my boobs during the holofilm. I stormed out of the theater and didn't look back."

"I'm sorry," Ben mumbled.

Ara shrugged. "Some people are jerks, that's the way life is." She lifted her glass. "Here, let's toast to not being jerks."

"To not being jerks," Ben repeated, clinking his glass with hers and taking a gulp of milk in hopes that the cold drink might calm his stomach. What did it mean when she apparently trusted him enough to date him even after something so horrible had happened at her last date? He cleared his throat. "Anyway, why did you become a mechanic?"

Ara shrugged again, the grin back on her face. "I like working with my hands, tinkering with stuff, that sort of thing. As a kid I was always taking my toys apart and it drove my parents crazy, but I liked figuring out how they worked."

"That sounds cute," said Ben, just as their food arrived.

"Enjoy," said the droid.

"Thanks," said Ben.

Ara took a large forkful of steak once the droid left, but then she started coughing a little after swallowing. "Hoo . . . when this place says hot sauce, it means _hot_ sauce!" She took a quick gulp of her soda, some of it dribbling down her chin.

"Uh, here, let me wipe it off for you," said Ben, holding up a napkin.

"No, it's okay, I've got it," said Ara, brushing her own napkin over her mouth. "But damn, that stuff's _good!"_

Ben couldn't help but snicker a little as he took a bite of his own steak – and immediately gulped down more milk to soothe the burning in his mouth.

"Looks like it wasn't just me," said Ara, giggling slightly. "That stuff really _is_ hot."

That caused them to both start laughing, laughing, laughing, as if the hot sauce was the funniest thing in the galaxy. It felt good to simply _laugh _with this woman, even if it was about something as silly as hot sauce.

"So," Ara said when the laughter subsided, "how did you decide to become a doctor? Didn't your uncle want you to be a Jedi?"

Ben's stomach dropped. He tried to stop his breath from shortening, but without success. Why did she have to ask _that_ question? He took another bite of steak, this time welcoming the heat. Maybe he could even use the spicy sauce as an excuse if his eyes got teary.

"Well . . ." he stammered, "I liked playing doctor with my parents when I was little."

"A lot of kids do," said Ara. "Was there something else?"

Ben looked down at the steak with the reddish-brown sauce glistening on it. "Well . . . yes, there was something else." He kept staring at his food, wondering how he could ever gain the courage to tell her about _that._

"I'm sorry," Ara said after a few moments. "If you don't want to talk about it, you don't have to. If it's embarrassing or something, that's fine."

Ben took a long inhale, calling on the Force to calm him down. "No, not embarrassing, just . . . not a pleasant memory." He took another deep breath as he slowly looked up into her sky-blue eyes. "When I was six, I had a . . . seizure." That was always the story his family told the outside world – very few knew the truth. "I had to stay in the hospital and the doctors and nurses were so nice and . . ." He trailed off.

Ara blinked at him. "Again, it's all right. You don't have to tell me."

Ben gulped, his mind quickly shifting to another memory. "Then when I was older and training with my uncle, I was able to use the Force to detect a neurotransmitter imbalance in his brain, brought on by years of stress and despair. If I hadn't detected it . . . I don't know what would have happened."

Ara was giving him a relaxed smile. "That's wonderful."

_Wonderful._ The word felt wrong. Was it _wonderful _that his uncle could have died? Was it _wonderful_ that he'd frightened his family and almost . . . almost . . .

His breath was shortening as if a weight were sitting on his chest _No, no, not here, not now, use the Force, calm yourself, use the Force . . ._

His body didn't listen. The weight crushed his lungs, pushing his body into shudders. _No, no, not in front of her . . . _His body still didn't listen – in fact the shudders got worse, his knees knocking together and his breath coming out in little uncontrollable gasps. Calling on the Force only brought back the memory of _that voice_, as cold and frightening as it was when he was little. He wanted to vanish, go back in time and stop himself from agreeing to go on this date, do _something _to get away . . .

But then he felt a pair of strong-yet-gentle arms wrap around him.

"It's okay . . . it's okay," Ara whispered, having left her seat to comfort him.

Ben swallowed a sob. "It wasn't just a seizure." The words left his mouth before he could stop himself from saying them. "There was . . . something in my mind – no, some_one."_

Ara patted the back of his head. "What do you mean?"

Now a sob came that he couldn't swallow back. He dug his head into her silky shirt. "A powerful dark side user had been speaking to me in my mind for as long as I could remember. At first little naïve me thought he was a friend, but . . . but . . ." Another sob escaped. "But he was trying to lure me to the dark side. I-If I hadn't told my parents and uncle about it and my uncle hadn't driven the voice away . . ." He trailed off, unwilling to imagine what might have happened.

He felt Ara trembling against his head. "I'm . . . I'm sorry . . . I don't know what to say."

Who _would_ know what to say? "I'm sorry," Ben whispered. "I didn't mean to . . ."

"There's nothing to apologize for," said Ara, running her hand through his hair.

With that, Ben wrapped his arms around her and they lingered in the embrace for what might have been several minutes. He breathed in, out, in, out, feeling the Force flowing through him as he absorbed Ara's embrace.

"Thanks," he murmured, gently pulling himself out of the hug and gazing up into her eyes. This woman . . . he still didn't know her that well, but he knew he liked her. His heart was thumping as he looked at her – was that love? No, it was too early to think about that . . . but perhaps someday, when they knew each other better.

"Ara?" he asked, standing up next to her. "I know you said you don't believe in sex on the first date, but do you believe in kissing on the first date?"

Ara smiled. "Do you want to kiss me?"

"Yes."

"Then what are we waiting for?"

Ben leaned forward, closing his eyes as he brushed her lips with his own, tasting her berry-flavored lipstick. She eagerly responded, sucking on his lips and cradling his still-wet cheek with her hand, brushing the tears away.

Maybe it was love and maybe it wasn't, but Ben at least knew that he enjoyed this moment.

. . .

"So how'd it go, son?" Han's hologram eagerly asked once Ben was home. "When can we meet her?"

"_Han!"_ Leia's hologram exclaimed.

Ben snickered a little. "It was nice. I even told her about . . . well, what happened when I was little and she was very understanding about it."

Han grinned at his son. "You gonna see her again?"

Ben grinned back. "Absolutely."

THE END


End file.
